This invention relates to fabric tape formed into a roll and particularly to such a roll having adhesive applied to the sides thereof for stabilizing the edges of the fabric tape.
It is known to provide rolls of fabric tape for a number of applications, including, for example, buffing the uppermost or "lube" layer of a plate formed as the disk component of a so-called fixed or "hard" information storage disk drive. As is known to those who are skilled in the art, the process of "lube buffing" the top surface of the hard disk plate is a finishing step in the process of manufacturing the disk. For this purpose it is preferred to employ a woven cotton tape. It is known to apply an adhesive to the edge of the tape in order to prevent the tape from fraying at the edges. If the tape is allowed to fray at the edges, cotton fibers may be deposited on the disk plate, resulting in contamination of the disk plate. As the desired information storage density on hard disks has increased, the tolerances for contaminants have become correspondingly more stringent.
The lube buffing process typically involves impregnating the cotton tape with a solvent such as a methyl alcohol solution. The solvent helps to evenly distribute the lubricant on the surface of the lube layer of the disk plate, and to aid in removing contaminants from the disk plate. However, applicants have become aware of a problem encountered in lube buffing with a solvent-impregnated tape having an edge-stabilizing adhesive. In particular, the solvent tends to dissolve the edge adhesive, causing the adhesive to be deposited on the disk plate which results in contamination of the disk plate.
Although it is possible to apply the tape to the lube layer surface in such a manner that the edges of the tape are maintained at a distance from the lube layer surface, such a manner of applying the tape to the surface fails to use the tape efficiently, and entails some inconvenience in handling the tape during lube buffing.